Chapter 134: The seal- 2
The screech of the diving Harriers was a deafening sound, a chorus of death from the sky. Rhys pushed his body to its absolute limit, his legs a blur of motion as he sprinted across the hot, white sand.
The dark opening at the base of the giant bones, the entrance to the Ribcage Caverns, was just ten yards away.
The first Skeletal Harrier, its bony maw open in a silent scream, was almost upon them. Its sharp, black claws, like obsidian daggers, were just inches from his back.
There was no time to dodge. There was no time to think.
In a single, fluid motion, Rhys did not throw Emma to the side. He threw her forward. He used all his strength to launch her through the air, sending her tumbling towards the dark, gaping entrance of the cavern.
She let out a cry of surprise as she flew through the air, landing in a heap on the cool, dusty ground just inside the entrance, safe from the initial attack.
The move had cost him precious momentum, but it had freed his hands.
He did not stop running. He did not look back. He raised his right hand, and a thin, black blade of the Twilight Edgeformed in his palm.
He flicked his wrist, sending the silent projectile flying into the air behind him.
The shadow blade met the first diving Harrier. There was no sound of impact. There was only a brilliant, blinding flash of pure, white light that erupted in the sky.
The Harrier dissolved into a shower of harmless, glittering dust, its death screech cut short.
But there were more. A dozen more were right behind it, their wings blotting out the sun.
Rhys was just a few feet from the entrance now. He could feel the rush of wind from their wings, a hot, dry wind that smelled of ancient bone.
He threw another Twilight Edge blade, then another, his movements a blur of practiced, deadly efficiency.
Flash. Flash.
Two more Harriers were erased from the sky. The others, seeing their comrades vanish, let out a collective screech of rage. They adjusted their dive, their attacks becoming more frantic, more desperate.
Rhys did not wait for them to reach him. He took a final, powerful leap and dived headfirst through the dark opening, landing on the stone floor beside Emma just as a hail of sharp, bony claws scraped against the rock of the entrance behind him.
They were inside.
The cavern was dark and cool, a welcome relief from the brutal heat of the desert. The air smelled of old bone and dry dust.
They were in a long, wide tunnel, the walls and ceiling formed by the massive, curved ribs of the long-dead World-Serpent.
The bones were so large that the tunnel was as wide as a city street and at least fifty feet high.
Outside, the enraged screeching of the Skeletal Harriers echoed from the entrance. They could see the dark, winged shapes of the creatures trying to get in, but the entrance was too small for them to swarm through.
They clawed and bit at the edges of the bone, their obsidian claws making loud, grating sounds on the ancient, fossilized surface.
"They’re trapped outside," Emma said, a note of relief in her voice as she got to her feet.
"For now," Rhys said, his voice grim. He was already looking around, his eyes scanning the dark, cavernous space.
"This is just a temporary solution. They will find another way in. We need to move deeper."
He created a small, stable ball of his Voidheart Flame, its black and silver light pushing back the shadows and illuminating the strange, alien architecture of their shelter.
They were in a network of natural tunnels and caverns, a maze of bone and stone.
"Your mother’s book," he said, turning to her. "Does it say anything about this place? A map? A description?"
Emma nodded, already flipping through the pages.
"There is a section," she said, her finger tracing a crude, hand-drawn map.
"She wrote that the legends call this place the ’Serpent’s Maw’. It is not just a shelter. It is a labyrinth. The tunnels twist and turn, and some lead to dead ends.
But she marked a central chamber, a place where the heart of the great beast once was. It should be the most defensible location."
She looked up from the book, her green eyes focused. "This way."
She took the lead now, the book in her hand, her eyes darting between the ancient text and the strange, organic shapes of the tunnels around them.
Rhys followed close behind, his sword in hand, his senses on high alert. The sounds of the Harriers scraping at the entrance slowly faded behind them as they moved deeper into the heart of the skeleton.
The tunnels were a strange and eerie place. The walls were smooth, polished bone, and the floor was covered in a fine, white dust.
They passed through vast, open chambers that must have been the creature’s lungs, and narrow, winding corridors that were once its veins.
After about an hour of walking, they felt a low, rumbling vibration through the floor. It was followed by a loud cracking sound that echoed through the entire network of caverns.
"They’re breaking through," Rhys said, his voice a low growl.
The screeching of the Harriers was audible again, louder now, and coming from multiple directions. They had found weaker points in the bone, and they were tearing their way in.
"We are close," Emma said, her voice tight with urgency. "The central chamber is just ahead."
They began to run. The sounds of the Harriers grew louder, closer. They could hear the sharp, grating sound of their claws on the bone walls of the tunnels all around them.
They burst into a massive, cavernous chamber. It was a huge, dome-shaped space, easily the size of the castle plaza back in Silverwood.
High above, small cracks in the fossilized bone allowed thin beams of moonlight to filter in, illuminating the vast, empty room. This had been the heart of the World-Serpent.
And they were not alone.
From a dozen different tunnels leading into the chamber, the Skeletal Harriers began to pour in. They scuttled into the room, their leathery wings folded, their sharp, bony bodies moving with an unnatural, insect-like speed.
They spread out, forming a wide, circling ring, trapping Rhys and Emma in the center of the chamber.
There were more than twenty of them. There was nowhere left to run.
"Stay behind me," Rhys said, his voice calm. He stood in front of Emma, his simple iron sword held steady in his hand.
The Harriers did not attack at once. They circled, their empty eye sockets fixed on them, their movements a silent, deadly dance.
Rhys knew a simple, direct fight would be difficult. They were fast, they could fly, and their numbers were a significant threat. He needed to even the odds.
He looked at the dusty floor of the chamber. He looked at the remains of the Harriers he had killed outside. He could not raise them as his own.
But that did not mean he could not use them.
He took a deep breath. He knelt down and placed his hand on the bone-dust floor. He did not use his Ashen Sovereign bloodline.
He used a different skill, one he had not used in a long time. The Earthshaker profession.
He poured his Qi into the ground. He did not try to create a massive earthquake. He focused his will on a single, precise command.
He focused on the loose bones, the dust, the very foundation of this ancient graveyard.
The Harriers, sensing the shift in energy, finally attacked. They screeched and dived, a storm of white bone and black claws.
But it was too late.
With a deep, grinding groan, the floor of the cavern erupted. Spikes of sharp, jagged bone, the fossilized remnants of the World-Serpent’s own body, shot up from the ground like a forest of deadly spears.
Several of the diving Harriers were impaled in mid-air, their bony bodies shattering on the sharp points of the bone spikes. Others were forced to swerve, their coordinated attack broken into chaos.
In the same moment, Rhys moved. He used Shadowed Dive, his form a black blur that weaved between the newly formed bone spikes.
Inside his own element, he was the predactor.
His Twilight Edge blades flew from his hands, silent and deadly.
Flash. Flash. Flash.
One by one, the confused and separated Harriers were erased from existence. They were fast, but he was faster. They were hunters, but he was a god of death.
Emma, protected in a small, safe space between several massive bone spikes, could only watch in awe. She saw him move, a ghost of vengeance, his power a perfect, terrifying fusion of earth, shadow, and light.
In less than a minute, it was over. The last of the Skeletal Harriers dissolved into a shower of glittering dust. The chamber was silent once more, the only evidence of the battle being the forest of sharp, white bone spikes that now filled the room.
Rhys stood in the middle of the silent chamber, breathing evenly. He looked around at the carnage he had created. He had won.
The immediate threat was gone.
He walked over to the remains of one of the Harriers, a few shattered wing bones that had not been completely erased. He knelt down and placed his hand on them.
He focused his will, reaching for his Ashen Sovereign bloodline one more time, just to be certain.
"Arise," he commanded.
And once again, nothing happened. The bones remained inert, the silent stamp of their true master still upon them.
The confirmation sent a cold chill down his spine. This was not a random monster attack. This was a deliberate, coordinated assault by the forces of a powerful entity.
He and Emma were not just trespassers. They were a threat that had to be eliminated.
He stood up and looked at her. She was pale, but her eyes were full of a new, profound understanding of the power he wielded.
"They will send more," she said, her voice a quiet statement of fact.
"I know," he replied. "We rest here tonight. At dawn, we continue east. We have to get out of this desert. We have to get to the Whispering Mire."
They sat in the silent, bone-filled chamber, the two of them alone in the heart of a dead god. They were safe for the night, but they both knew that their journey had just become infinitely more dangerous.
The silent, unseen king of this land now knew their names, and it would not stop until they were just another set of white bones in its endless, sandy graveyard.